News

Spang Pilots Train with Moroccans at African Lion

5/27/2015

AFA Caption

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Six
F-16s and crews from the 480th Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem AB, Germany,
deployed to Ben Guerir AB, Morocco, from May 15-22, to take part in joint and
combined air training as part of Exercise​ African
Lion. The exercise is the largest Department of Defense training event in
Africa, and it marks the first year the US Air Force is participating in the
event, which is led by the US Marine Corps. In addition to the airmen from
Spangdahlem, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command airmen also participated
in the event, flying with Royal Moroccan Air Force F-16 pilots, as well as
participants from Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Senegal, and Tunisia. The training events included RMAF F-16s training in
in-flight air refueling with US tanker aircraft and emergency landing barrier
training. The US and the RMAF have a “long-standing friendship and an exercise
like this reinforces those mutual bonds,” said USAF Maj. Dave Atkinson, air
exercise training detachment commander. Morocco is a close ally of the Gulf
Cooperation Council nations, and began fielding 24 new Block 52 F-16s back
in 2011.